Documentation

Counting the Free Africans of Brazil

Historical and modern estimates range between eight and fourteen thousand Africans liberated in Brazil between 1821 and 1856.

The most important historical counts, conducted near the end of the Free African regime are:

A nominal count conducted by Reginaldo Muniz Freire and Leocadio José Sousa da Costa in March 1864. Based upon the registries [now lost] maintained by the Curador dos Africanos Livres, the Freire-Costa list enumerated by name and last known fate a total of 7,366 liberated Africans. The Freire-Costa did not include Africans liberated in the provinces of north.

“Return of the Emancipados who have received Certificates of Freedom, of those who have died, and of the number still held in Slavery,” a report submitted by the British consul Lemmon Hunt to Foreign Secretary Lord Russell in correspondence dated March 10, 1865. The return correlated each African to his or her concessionaire. The total headcount cites in the return [8,673] was likely based on the Freire-Costa count, upwardly revised following the extension of full freedom to all surviving Free Africans, under the decree of 24 September 1864.

The tabular summary count [matricula geral], "Estado em que se acham a escripturação da matricula geral dos diversos carregamentos de Africanos livres na Corte, e Provincias do Imperio," compiled by Lt . Pedro Paulino da Fonseca, Veador da Casa de Correção, in May 1868. Apparently based upon nominal registries [again, lost] housed at the Casa de Correção, Fonseca counted 10,719 emancipados liberated in the capital and the various provinces. The figure was revised upward, to slightly more than 11,000, in the annual report of the Ministry of Justice presented to the Parliament in March 1869.

Identifying Africans

About
9,000 individual Africans have been identified in the archival evidence related
to the Free Africans of Brazil. Discrepancies, inconsistencies, silences, and
misunderstandings are common features of this source material. Nevertheless, the
rich and varied documentary evidence allows for the identification of
individual Africans and the tracking of their lives, in some cases for more
than thirty years.

The chief sources for the identity of these 9,000 Africans are nominal lists and certificates of freedom generated by Brazilian authorities at the moment a liberated Africans acquired a unique cohort-specific number, commonly referred to as a matricula, a Christian or Classical name, and a registry of nação, age,
gender, and body marks. The term often used to describe the assignment of name,
number, and nação was “marking” [Portuguese: tirar as marcas] in
reference to registries of the type and location of body markings [marcas].
The archival vestiges of these markings are invaluable tools in the
identification of Liberated Africans as individuals and as cohorts.[The sole known case for registries of African
names involved the Brilhante,
intercepted in July 1838. Yet like the other liberated Africans, the
emancipados of the Brilhante also
received Christian or Classical names.]

The
Curador dos Africans Livres maintained registries of most of the Free Africans
liberated in Rio de Janeiro. Each registry was organized by the original
condemned vessel [carregamento] and then by matricula. The
registries [called livros, suggesting
that they were bound books] maintained by the Curador were used to document the
incidents of the Africans' life, notably the transfer of concessionaire and
Last Known Fate.

In the
course of their lives as emancipados, some Free Africans used a given
name or nação other than those
recorded in the marking. However, Brazilian authorities typically insisted that
the original name, nação, and matricula be used to confirm
identities in petitions submitted by Africans. In cases of death, police or
medical authorities sometimes looked to body markings for positive
identification.

In
addition to the nominal lists taken at marking, several nominal lists were generated
at the end of the Free African regime in Brazil . Some of the most useful
registries were taken by various Brazilian authorities between 1860 and 1868. At least one of these
registries was sold (likely in secret) to British officials. These registries,
which typically contain the Africans name, nation, and ship (and sometimes a matricula) have been used to confirm the
identity of each known African, via cross-referencing of name and nation.

In
cases in which the Slave Trade Database does not register the voyage that
brought the African to Brazil [for example, in the Africans whose “carregamento”
was the Casa de Correção], a four-digit ID has been assigned to each African,
followed by the matricula. For example, Thomaz Congo, Casa de Correção
128 has been assigned the unique ID XXXX-0128.

Identifying Concessionaires

The
chief sources for the identity of concessionaires are three nominal lists of
concessionaires assembled in 1845, 1860, and 1865. Supplemental materials
include the petitions submitted by Africans and the concessionaires, found
mainly in the archives of the Brazilian ministry of justice.

In December
2012, all known concessionaire names associated with all known Africans and carregamentos
were compiled into a single list. After duplicates were eliminated and spelling
variants assigned an alias, about 2000 individual concessionaires have been
identified.

The Spatial History Project at Stanford University, a part of the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, is made possible by the generous funding of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE), DoResearch, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Wallenberg Foundation Media Places Initiative.